Into the Fray
by Dorkzilla
Summary: It started with a simple bounty hunt. All of the new allies,the enemies turned allies,the decisions people had to make. What the situation ended up escalating to was something that nobody could have foreseen. Samus finds herself with a team that she surprisingly cares for,and will defend with her life, even when they're up against something that may destroy all they hold dear.
1. Prologue

**A/N: This is a pretty ambitious project I'm undertaking. This story will be no shorter than fifty chapters. Due to the fact that I am much more patient and wiser when it comes to writing, this will have the most "soul" put into a story that I've ever done. I want the emotion of the story to be felt. I want to immerse you, the reader, into the conflict of the story. Why? Because I love Metroid. Samus Aran will forever be my favorite protagonist. And I've dreamed of this story. If I ever become a film director, this will most definitely be some sort of film or film trilogy that I'll make. Will this be my masterpiece? Maybe, maybe not. I just want you to know that this will have HEART. I will give my all into making this story.**

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"Throughout our living nightmare, as we battle with this unyielding darkness, we Chozo see a light. This light glows with promise, chasing the shadows cast by the Great Poison and purifying that which has grown toxic. It is strange, though - at times it looks to our eyes as if the light coalesces into the figure of a woman. Burning brightly, the luminescence descends from space then retreats back into the infinite blackness from whence it came. When this prophecy comes to pass, when the light recedes, the Chozo's long vigilance of containment will finally come to an end."

_-The Prophecy of Light_

Space.

It is everlasting. It is…. Neverending. It's a vast place filled with things and secrets we can't ever hope to know.

If anything, it's never going to die. There's no possible way for something so simply huge to just peeper out.

At least, that's what a certain bounty hunter thought as she sat in her ship's cockpit, watching the open universe that's ripe for exploration.

Sitting in her ship with its muted colors, canisters filled with supplies tucked away in a corner away from prying eyes, and just that warmth that came from any home that somebody held near and dear to, Samus Aran, the technical last of the Chozo, came to realize just how…..deep space really was.

She had never before been able to just sit and watch space go by for such a long period of time before, never in her time of Federation-serving, bounty-hunting, nor even the occasional fight or one-time war with the Space Pirates, had she ever been able to admire the beauty of space for more than five minutes. There was always something to do, a hobby or job, just SOMETHING, that would keep either her mind, body, or both preoccupied. There was no Federal job to be done, no bounty to be hunted down and collected, no war to be fought. Just simple and utter peace.

And so, naturally, something had to come along and royally screw things up.

The ship's messaging system did its whole BEEP-ing thing once more, and once again for the zillionth time, the bounty huntress shut her eyes and groaned in annoyance.

"Please, please! Just let me have some quiet for more than 10 minutes!" exclaimed the annoyed woman in frustration.

Instead of nicely complying with her, the universe decided to mess around with her a bit more and let the ship continue its God forsaken BEEP-ing.

Samus continued to grumble as she manned her ship, her fingers typing away like mad on her ship's command keyboard, saying such things as "Damn universe, can't let me sleep for a damn hour in my own freaking ship-" and so on and so forth.

Finally, after a total of exactly three seconds, Samus's gunship silently woke with its lights turned on. Samus proceeded to fly her ship into the void known as space while she checked whatever the hell it was that ruined her peace and quiet.

Turns out, it was a call from the Federal government.

_All the more reason to just ignore it_, the blonde thought bitterly to herself. However, she begrudgingly took the automated message, knowing that it was probably something of importance.

"Greetings, Samus Aran, we would like to request your assistance in arresting an escaped convict." Samus read aloud.

"Hmm. Well that's interesting," she muttered to herself.

"We will award you handsomely should you accept the job."

"Oh, I do sure miss the days when it was "mission" and not "job"." Samus once again commented. Then again, a typical twenty-three year old wouldn't want missions. Then again, she wasn't a typical twenty-three year old.

"The name of the criminal in question is a man known as Daniel Strande, a 30-year old man convicted of murdering an entire class room of children. He is, of course, not mentally sound."

"They never are," Samus agreed. However, if it was a child murderer the Alliance was after, then she would gladly accept the offer.

"We have reason to believe that this man is hiding at a planet called Ribichus. Go there, arrest the man, and you will collect the reward by transport. We hope you do-"

And that is where Samus Aran ended the message. She began to type in the coordinates given by the automated message on the keyboard, and then let the ship fly there for her.

"Adam? You on?" Samus called out to the personalized computer.

"Yes, lady. I believe you want to know what exactly is the planet called Ribichus?" the computer replied in the voice of the bounty-hunter's late commander.

"You are correct, sir." Samus replied with a faint grin.

"Please, Lady, I am no longer your commanding officer." Adam replied. "the planet known as Ribichus is a fairly newly integrated planet of the Alliance. Very bleak planet, nothing but desert on one side and ocean on the other. No large city, only several outposts and small towns spread out across the planet. However, the buildings are very easy to hide in, being that most of them are built underground to avoid the harsh weather. There are several shipping outposts on the sea, also."

"Can you give me any pointers?" Samus asked. The commander's wisdom surpassed hers, despite now subsiding in a computer.

"Be inconspicuous, of course. The man knows that he's a wanted man. I've scanned data logs from the Federation and have already found that Wanted posters are being printed across this solar system. You may have competition."

"Anything else? The blonde-haired woman asked.

"Yes. Don't forget to put on your suit, you want to look ravishing when you meet the man," the computer replied.

"Oh, shut up," Samus replied smiling. She did put on a brown trenchcoat with coat tails over her Zero Suit, though. She did know how the men reacted to a woman wearing such tight-fitting clothing.

She looked out the window and was caught off guard; she had arrived sooner than she would've thought. They were already approaching the planet's atmosphere.

"Alright," Samus said aloud as she holstered her Stun Gun, "Let's do this."

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**A/N: Obviously, the story gets more exciting as it goes on. This mission is not filler, it does have a point in the main story. So, please, by all means, review! Tell me what you thought of this prologue!**


	2. Beasts

**A/N: Ideas…circulating in my head…..must…..write….down….**

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Samus

As they passed through the world's atmosphere, Samus was already able to see just how dismal the place was. The sand was a dirty brown color, and whatever buildings that were visible looked just about ready to fall over. She didn't see how a planet that could provide such a huge ocean could also have such a bleak landscape.

Finally, the purple gunship landed on a somewhat stable part of the ground near one of the buildings there. "Alright," the bounty hunter muttered to herself as she approached her ship's teleporter, "Let's do this."

There was a slight problem, Samus realized as she stepped foot out onto the bare sand. She didn't know where this underground city was, exactly.

So, she simply went to the nearest building. It can't be THAT hostile of a planet, she thought reasuredly to herself. The inside looked exactly like the outside: bare. It was so small, that it could barely be called a room. The floor was the same sand s from outside. There was only one other person in there, a man with a ripped shirt and faded jeans standing behind a counter in the corner of the room.

The man looked like he should be in a retirement home, and as Samus walked towards him, his expression didn't change from its dull and uninterested look.

"And how can I help you today?" the elderly man asked with dull eyes.

"I would like to go to the city. Would you possibly know where it is?" the young woman asked politely.

The man sighed as he answered, "Go to the opposite side of the room. Touch any part of it with one hand and one hand only. Wait five seconds."

Samus did just that, and she found that the entire outline of that wall started to glow blue. Suddenly, an elevator compartment rose out of the sand next to her. It looked about as old as the elder.

"Oh," Aran replied a bit surprised, but not totally unfazed, "thanks."

The man didn't reply as she stepped into the compartment.

While the outside part of the world was almost deafeningly quiet, the underground was simply loud and noisy. What the hunter had been expecting was a dark, damp, and small place of buildings that looked as poor as the ones from above.

That just wasn't the case. The city was instead brightly lit in a light orange color, almost like it was sunset. The buildings, while definitely not the biggest she had seen, were still tall, and connected right into the ceiling. There was one main street and five other ones connected to it, and the whole place had a strange sort of old-world vibe to it. There were many vendors in the streets, and the people were dressed in typical desert-style clothing.

Just how do they expect me to find one man in all of this? Samus thought to herself as she stepped out of the elevator, which then rose back up to the ceiling on metal rods and just stayed there.

The woman remembered how the man looked like from what she saw in the picture the Federation provided: his age was showing, he had light colored skin, black and short hair, and very dark eyes. His physique was slightly overweight, and his teeth were a bit worse for wear.

Seeing as how most of the people she could see were fit and dark skinned, Samus realized that it shouldn't be that hard to find a man of that description in this place.

Now, if I had just murdered a whole classroom of children and ran here to hide, where exactly would I hide? Thought Aran.

As she walked around and tried to look inconspicuous, she thought,_ I would probably hide right out in the public. There are a lot of people out on the streets, and if I just found the right type of clothing, I would be able to hide my skin color and most of my physique._

_Well,_ she finished,_ that complicates things. The only way she would be able to track the murderer down quickly would be to put on her suit. However, that would bring too much attention to herself and…_

Samus began to grin as she continued, _and alert the subject to my presence. He'll try to make a run for it, and even without my suit, I would probably be able to catch up to him and capture him._

People began to give the blonde strange looks as she removed her coat (she could get another). The strange looks gave way to gasps of surprise as Samus Aran willed her suit to appear.

She remembered to a couple of months ago, when she had had that strange power suit-Metroid fusion on for most of her mission in the B.S.L station. However, when her mission had been completed, she had tinkered with some parts, and was able to transform the suit into its regular shoulder-pad, orange-and red-self.

The people gave her a wide berth, and she said under her breath "Come out, come out, wherever you are…."

The street became completely silent as everyone realized they had THE Samus Aran in their midst.

Five seconds passed. Then ten seconds. Then fifteen…..

Just as the bounty hunter began to think that he wouldn't show, a man in a hooded cloak that Samus hadn't been able to see before began to turn and run. FAST.

Bingo, Aran thought and grinned as she began to race after the man.

Suddenly, though, she noticed that several other figures were racing after the man as well. Samus groaned inside her suit "No, I've got competition…"

Finally, they all managed to circle around the man. Samus quickly assessed her situation.

There were two other people who chased after the man, and Samus could recognize one: an old enemy. The purple and armor-clad alien bounty hunter known as Sylux. God, not him again, he was the worst, Samus thought.

However, the other man, she did not know. He looked around her age, and he had very, very pale skin. He looked athletically fit, and he was in a simple brown shirt and pants. He was holding up a blaster handgun at the man. Noticing this, she also raised her arm cannon at the convict.

"So," said the quietly raspy voice of Sylux, "I believe I'm taking this one, correct?"

"Excuse me, but I was the one who flushed him out, didn't I?" replied Aran in a steely tone.

"I'm a Federation officer," said the third man, "and I'm to take him in for questioning."

"So why exactly did they send me in to fetch him?" Samus and Sylux said at the same time. All three of them looked at each other, and swiftly raised their selective weapons from the man to each other.

"Something is NOT right here," said the purple-armored hunter in a dangerously low tone, "There should be no reason for why we were all sent in here."

Samus noticed the criminal trying to edge his way out of the circle, and she turned to Sylux and tried to look him in the eye as best she could, seeing as how his armor didn't have any visor of some sort. "Why don't we try to focus on the task at hand?" she said while pointing with her free hand at the man, who froze in place.

Five extremely long seconds passed before Sylux replied with "Fine."

All three of them approached the man, who didn't look the least bit afraid that two of the most well-known bounty hunters in the galaxy and a well-trained Federation officer were approaching him, all weapons trained onto his forehead.

The officer gripped the clothing of the criminal and with surprising strength pulled him right up to his face. "Where is it?" he asked with gritted teeth.

"Where's what?" the man asked while laughing slightly.

"You know what I'm talking about. The device."

Samus began to get more intrigued by the man as he said this. Interestingly, nothing came up when her visor scanned him. That meant that the man wasn't an officer and was acting on his own accord.

Before she could think about it more, the convict looked directly at her. For some reason, this caused a cold chill to run up her back.

"It's already starting," he said directly to her, grinning, "NONE of you will be able to stop it. This galaxy….will fall."

With that, he started laughing. With one hand, he quickly whipped out a small trigger. Noticing this, the "officer" pushed him back. Suddenly, dark blue armor started to appear all over his body.

Within two seconds, the man was in a dark blue Chozo-suit. The only differences between his and Samus's were that his was more masculine-fitting, had no shoulder pads, and instead of the cannon, there was a mechanical weapon that Samus's visor recognized as a "crossbow" attached to his arm.

Samus lowered her weapon slowly in shock as she stared at the man, who simply stared back.

"Wh…Who-" Samus began, but was interrupted by Sylux, who said, "In case you two did not notice, the whole city is in chaos.

Aran looked back at the man and realized that he had pressed the trigger, and was lying down on the ground, eyes wide open, and clearly dead. However, the people on the street were covering their ears and wailing in pain.

She realized that the trigger was emitting some sound, and it was being filtered by each of their suits so that they weren't affected by it. "What the hell is happening!" Samus yelled over the screams.

"How am I exactly supposed to know!?" rasped Sylux.

"Listen!" said the "officer", "In a few seconds, the whole city will-!"

He stopped mid-sentence as he realized that the people had stopped wailing and were just on their knees. Their veins were beginning to turn a dark black, and Samus was briefly reminded of Phazon.

Slowly, they all raised their heads up and stared at the three hunters with animalistic looking eyes. They began to bare their teeth and make this strange sort of grunt/growl noise in the backs of their throats.

"Run," whispered the "officer", "NOW."

Neither Samus nor Sylux needed to be told twice. Just as they began to run back towards the elevator, however, the townspeople screamed in very high-pitched voices and began to sprint after them.

Not run; SPRINT.

"Come on!" yelled the "officer", and finally, they reached the place directly beneath the elevator. As one, they all somersaulted upward and were just able to grip the edge of the elevator's floor.

Sensing that weight had been put on to the machine, the elevator surged upward and through the sand, up to the planet's base floor.

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**A/N; Well? What did you guys think? Please, let me know!**


	3. My name is Pierce

**A/N: Spring Break all week=faster updates. Well, let's get started, shall we?**

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Samus

The trio sprawled out onto the sand, breathing hard. Samus did a quick look around the room and realized that the man behind the counter was no longer there.

She looked at the "officer" once again (who was trying to pick himself up from off the ground), walked over to him, and promptly pulled him up and slammed him against the wall.

"Would you mind telling me just HOW and WHERE you got this armor?" she said through gritted teeth, glaring at the man.

"Listen," the man pleaded, "I'll explain everything later. Right now, we need to get off of this planet."

"I think I agree with this male," Sylux interjected, having pulled himself off of the ground and was standing stiffly behind Samus, "This is neither the time nor the place to be having long-winded conversations."

Samus paused for a moment before letting go of the man. "Fine. We'll discuss this later." She said while walking towards the entrance of the building.

Finally, the trio reached Samus's ship in the desert. Time had passed considerably: it was already the evening.

Samus continuously paced the deck of the ship, the stranger had seated himself on one of the seats inside the ship, and Sylux was just standing in a corner of the ship.

Finally, she pointed her arm cannon at the man, saying "Now, answer my question."

"I think we need to talk about what just happened down there, first," said the man stiffly.

"Yes, I believe we do," said the purple alien, "We also need to discuss why exactly the Galactic Federation sent all of us to arrest that one man."

Aran grudgingly lowered her weapon and sat in the pilot seat. "It wasn't the Federation who gave you the invitation," the stranger replied, "It was me. I hacked into the Federation network and sent the two of you the message."

Samus looked at the man with cold eyes. "And why, exactly did you do that? You wanted to get us all killed by people gone insane?"

The man turned directly to Samus before replying with "No. I just knew that I would need the help in capturing Strande. But, things don't always go according to plan, do they, Samus?"

He held up his crossbow arm and tapped a section near the back of it: a hologram then popped up of the trigger that Strande had been holding before he died.

"This," continued the stranger, "Is what he used to murder those children. I'm still not sure what it does exactly, but from what we just saw, it emits a high pitched noise that turns whoever that hears it into…" he trailed off, trying to find the right word.

The word came from Sylux, who had been still standing quietly in the corner. "Animals. Correct? It terminates almost all intelligent brain functions and turns them into beasts."

The man only nodded curtly. "The Federation wanted to keep this part of the murder under wraps."

Samus couldn't help but smirk as she heard this. "It wouldn't be the first time," she noted, remembering the X. "But you're not part of the Federation though, are you?"

"Right," the man replied, looking down at his suit for a moment before continuing, "I'm alone in this. I had been on the planet at the time that he killed those children. I snuck into the Federation, and overheard what really happened on that planet. I knew that I would need help though, so-"

"So you sent us in. Is that correct?" Samus interjected.

"Yes." The man began to turn his hand into a fist as he continued angrily, "I wanted to just arrest him. I didn't want him to do that to a whole city….."

Samus softened her glare a bit as she heard this. "I understand," she interjected, "But the damage is done. The trigger is still down there, isn't it? It's being trampled into pieces by all of those people, right?"

"Probably," the man said. "He had important information. I don't think he was alone in this. There might be more of those devices manufactured across the-"

"We have company," interrupted Sylux, and as the other two looked outside the ship with him, they saw that he was right: the people had managed to pull off the same trick that they had, and were now outside, looking around, hunched over like animals.

Quickly, the man turned towards both of them, "Now, I need to ask for your help. Will you try to help me stop this?" he said, gesturing towards the people now sprawling out of the building.

"Yes," Samus quickly replied. She had saved the galaxy before, she could do it again. Now, they both turned to Sylux. His expression was unable to be seen.

Finally, he said, "Fine. We cannot possibly let the entire galaxy go to hell, now, can we?"

Samus turned back to the ship's controls and lifted the ship up and out into space.

As they entered into the vast area of space, Samus said aloud, "Adam? You on?"

The computer hummed to life, and the voice of Adam spoke. "Yes lady. My sensors indicate that there are two others with you. One of them, I am able to identify as the bounty hunter know as Sylux. The other….the other doesn't show up on any known database. Why are they here?"

"You were able to program an officer's mind into your computer?" questioned Sylux, "That is…..interesting."

"Yeah, it is," Samus said, slightly glaring at the purple-armored alien, before turning to the other man again, saying "and Adam's right. When I scanned you, nothing came up. You're just a ghost according to technology. Who are you?"

The man paused for a second before replying, "My name is Pierce." He extended his hand out in formal greeting, and Samus shook it.

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**A/N: A bit of a shorter chapter, but I already had a bit of action last chapter, so this explains some stuff while keeping some mysteries unsolved until later on. Please, tell me what you thought of it!**


	4. Lazarus

**A/N: Had a first draft for this chapter, thought it was lame, deleted it, went to sleep, and BOOM! Ideas floating in my head again. Also, this starts off exactly where the previous chapter left off.**

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The man paused for a second before replying, "My name is Pierce." He extended his hand out in formal greeting, and Samus shook it.

Suddenly, a blinding flash of white hit the room; once it was gone, both Samus and Pierce had both fallen out of their chairs, armors deactivated.

Sylux, it seemed, was also affected by the flash. He was pulling himself up on one of the crates, holding his head with one hand.

Samus could barely see anything due to the flash. Her whole line of vision was still very bright, and she was seeing double on everything. Pierce also seemed to be suffering the same effects, as he kept on shaking his head quickly and was blindly grabbing onto the chair that he had just fallen off of.

"Samus, what happened?" the computer asked. Samus, however, chose to ignore it.

"What," Samus said, breathing heavily as she suddenly felt exhausted, "was that?". She finally grabbed the brim of her chair and stood up.

"I-I don't understand," Pierce mumbled, having finally gotten up. "They... they told me that would only happen with…"

"Happen with whom?" interrogated Sylux, who had crossed the room and was now looking Pierce dead center in the eye.

Samus still felt weak for some reason, and was leaning with one hand on the control desk. Just as she was about to ask the same thing, she realized with a panicked thought that she couldn't activate her suit. This had never happened before, not even when she was under great stress.

Samus's face went through several emotions at once, which Pierce realized. "Listen, my caretakers told me that if two "Power Suits" of opposite technology were to interact with each other in any way, there would be some sort of computing error between them. It seems that both of our suits have shut down until further notice."

Finally, Samus got her body under control, and stood up straight. "You see, this is what I wanted to know before." She replied to Pierce, "That suit….it doesn't exactly look like Chozo technology. It looks like another species took blueprints of the power suit and decided to do their own spin on it. And who were your caretakers?"

Before Pierce could reply, however, Sylux interjected, "It appears that we have company."

Samus turned away and saw the Federation ship waiting for them. It was barely big enough to be called a government vessel, and it looked very old and dated. The Federation logo on the side was scratched up and fading away, with the catchphrase "A United Federation is a Peaceful Federation" missing several letters.

"What are they doing here?" Samus wondered aloud, before having her question answered by Sylux. "Possibly because of me. This is a Federation ship, is it not? It is possible that they managed to plug into your computer and sensed me here."

"Right," Samus replied, annoyed, "You stole that suit. I almost forgot." She glared at the disguised alien, with no apparent effect.

"Lady, I'm getting an incoming call." Adam said, and suddenly, the intercom came on with the call from the Federation ship.

"Samus, we're going to need to ask you to dock your ship inside the hangar bay," grunted the voice of an officer, "While your friend there will definitely be serving a lot of time, we may also have to be arresting you for your little incident on B.S.L."

Oh god, Samus angrily thought, what stories has the Federation been telling?

"This ship can outrun it, can it not?" Sylux offered. "Yes, but it could also easily be tracked down, just like any other Federation ship." Pierce replied with an irritated look. "Isn't that right, Samus?"

Samus groaned, as she had been thinking about running as well. "Correct," she sighed.

She tried to activate her suit again, and once again, it resulted in a no go. "How long does this suit deactivation thing last?" she asked Pierce.

"I really couldn't tell you." The man replied. Since Samus's vision was clearer now, she was able to see that the man's clothes had stayed intact. Her suit vaporized any clothes that weren't her Zero Suit, and so this was something very strange to look at.

She also noticed that she hadn't replied and Pierce was now giving her a weird look, and so she shook her head and said "Whatever. Let's just go in-"

"If you think that I would actually-" interrupted Sylux angrily, who was in turn interrupted by Pierce. "It's the only option left, so why the hell not?"

Samus REALLY hated giving up so easily. But she knew that Pierce was right. Unless they could take over the entire ship, there weren't any other options left.

Then again, the vessel isn't that big to begin with, Samus thought as she directed the ship into the hanger bay, maybe there's only a small crew. Maybe…..

As soon as the ship landed in the hangar, five troopers came out, weapons armed.

"Alright, come out slowly, one by one, or else you'll get your brains blasted out." Said the voice over the intercom.

"Charming," Samus sighed, getting up and out of her chair, "I'll go out first."

She stepped onto the teleporter, and after a couple of seconds, she set foot onto the Federation ship's hangar bay. The troops immediately surrounded her and snapped electric handcuffs around her wrists.

The same procedure was done for Sylux and Pierce, and in the meantime, Samus became increasingly more annoyed with her shackles. She didn't like being caged.

Finally, they were being pushed forward towards the ship's control center. Samus really did NOT enjoy being pushed around like an animal either. Just as she was wondering if she could kick the trooper behind her though, they had already arrived.

The control center was a bit different than a typical Federation ship. There was only one person manning the controls instead of several, and the commanding officer in charge of the ship was sitting on a random chair, and looked almost asleep. The inside of the ship looked just about as pleasant as the outside. It was very dirty and ill-managed, with the windows looking out into space being all scratched up.

"So, we've got a guy with stolen Federation equipment, a girl who managed to blow up several planets in her time, and a guy we don't even know. Correct?" said the officer, having sat up as soon as the captives walked in.

"I'd hardly call blowing up a planet an actual crime," replied Samus through gritted teeth, "considering the fact that if I didn't, everyone here would probably be dead."

"Yeah," the man replied with a chuckle, "sure. Anyway, for you, we've gotta wait for more information from Daiban before we can take you in. However, for Sylux, he's pretty much going to the shittiest prison in the galaxy." When he said this, he gave the purple alien a sly look, which only angered him more. "I don't know what to do with you," he continued with a puzzled look at Pierce. "Meh, you'll probably go to jail to for aiding him, or some crap."

Samus tried again to activate her suit, however, this time, she felt it power up. As soon as she felt it though, it was gone. She had to force herself not to kick whoever was around her in frustration.

"Alright," the officer continued in his lazy voice, "let's get these three to the-"he suddenly stopped, and when Samus looked at him again, she saw that a green-lit blade was sticking out of his chest.

"What the-?" Pierce murmured confusedly. The officer started to make gurgling noises, and blood began to slip out of his mouth.

"Hey!" one of the troopers yelled, and they all started to open fire rather stupidly, as whoever had attacked the officer was now using his armor-covered-body as a shield as he/she started moving closer to them.

Finally, the figure threw the officer's body at them with a high-pitched yell. Before any of them could get a good look at the attacker, he/she suddenly somersaulted into the air and landed behind one of the soldiers, slicing his head off. This continued for a little while more until everyone in the room except the captives lay on the floor, covered in blood. Finally, the figure appeared before them, and Samus recognized him with a feeling of dread inside.

The assassin wore armor not unlike Samus's. It was a bright green, and the helmet had a ponytail of synthetic hair sticking out. The figure deactivated his scythe, and Samus began to glare at him.

It was the space pirate Weavel. "Hey, guys," said the bounty hunter with a distinct Space Pirate growl. He began to pace around them in a casual manner.

"Why're you here?" Samus spat. "Oh, I'm sorry," mocked the space pirate, "Did you NOT want me to murder your captors? I would've imagined that you'd be a little more thankful." While he said this, he lifted Samus's chin with one hand, while lifting up his weapon. "We could just cut the pleasantries, you know."

Just as Samus was about to bite his hand, Weavel quickly left her and turned to Sylux. "Ah, you! Zi remember you! That irritable Kriken used to talk MOST highly of you!"

"I do not think either of us wants to mention Trace," replied Sylux in a calm tone, "Like how he managed to shoot your lower half right in there, remember that?" he continued.

The space pirate paused for a moment before backhanding the alien, saying "I'd mind what you say, if I were you. Why can't you be more compliant, like that young man over there?" gesturing towards Pierce.

As soon as he said this, though, Pierce muttered rather loudly to Samus, "Would you mind telling me exactly what the hell he is?"

Irritated, Weavel turned away from all of them and continued "Never mind. I can just kill you all right now."

"Actually, since every Federation officer here is dead…." Sylux trailed off.

A tense moment of silence passed before Sylux easily freed himself of his bonds and pointed his Shock Coil at Weavel, who in turn pointed his Battlehammer at all of them. He was clearly in fear now, but tried not to show it.

Samus tried once again to activate her suit, and finally, it worked. She broke her shackles as her familiar orange-and-red armor appeared once again. As her HUD booted up, she pointed her arm cannon at the space pirate.

Pierce was able to activate his strange suit as well, and pointed his crossbow at Weavel. "It seems that the odds have been reversed," said Sylux, and if Samus could see his face, she was sure that he would be grinning.

Weavel grew increasingly more anxious, pointing his weapon at each of them. "Y-yes, it appears they have," he replied, voice quivering anxiously.

As soon as they all fired, Weavel split in two, his lower half beginning to fire at them like a turret, and his upper half jumping around.

"What did he just do?" Pierce said, trying to follow Weavel's upper half while trying to dodge the obstacles from his lower half.

"Yeah, he can do that," Samus replied while firing at the green bounty hunter's lower half, "most of his body is cybernetic. Just shoot him for a bit, he'll put himself back together eventually.

"I may kill him," said Sylux whilst concentrating his weapon on the space pirate's lower half.

In battle, Samus came to realize just how adept at battle Pierce really was. He was backflipping and forward somersaulting while dodging, and his weapon fired bolts of lasers. Once, in the battle, Samus began to concentrate on Weavel's upper half, and didn't pay attention as the lower half-turret turned to her and fired. At the last moment, however, Pierce came in and knocked the blonde out of the way, taking the shot for himself. He doubled over, but as Samus quickly got up and tried to assist him, he straightened up a bit and gave her a thumbs-up.

She nodded, and as she began to fire at Weavel once again, she smiled faintly.

Finally, the turret half fell on its side, twitching. The upper half clawed its way back to it, and Weavel put himself back together. His armor was almost destroyed, and his synthetic hair was stuck in strands with his strange-looking blood. As the three of them pointed their weapons down at him, Samus interrogated "Why were you here?"

"Heh, heh," Weavel choked out, trying to sit himself up, "Don't you know what's starting? I did this, for NO REASON. Can't you people just see that? This happens. A lot, in fact. Murder strings itself across the galaxy, from planet to planet, spaceship to spaceship. That Strande guy had the right idea. Yes, I know about him. He's not alone in this; I'M not alone in this. Somewhere, in some planet across the galaxy, the same thing that happened to Ribichus is happening. It will happen to EVERYONE; and soon, savages will be all that's left to rule the galaxy."

"You are a true poet," Samus said, and they all blasted him until he was nothing but a green mess.

"Is he dead," Pierce said as he nudged the mess with his foot. "He already was. Didn't you scan him? He's got no heartbeat. That's how he keeps coming back." Replied Samus.

"Unfortunately," Sylux said, as he scooped up the blob, opened an empty crate, and plopped the mass in there. He shut the lid. "Now," he continued as he turned to the both of them, "what to do with this ship…"

Samus considered what he was implying, which was, of course, to steal the ship._ The hangar would be a good enough place to store her ship (along with Sylux's, perhaps,), but it was also still traceable. Unless, they removed any microchips or data technology that had to do with the Federation…._

"The Federation is not that bad of a government, by any means," she said, "but most of the people inside it are. Besides, this is, after all, a pretty small ship for the Federation. No one should miss it."

"Scans show that no one else is on the ship," Pierce said(who had gone over to the control monitor and had begun to observe through the security cameras), "It is completely desolate. There's five rooms, not including the engine room or the lounge."

"Well, I guess it's official," Samus said with a sly grin, "this ship is ours."

Both Sylux and Pierce immediately began to call in their ships, with Sylux transmitting some sort of beacon through the Federation ship, and Pierce using his weapon, much like how Samus used her arm cannon to call in her ship.

After a couple of minutes, two ships showed up, of which Samus only knew one of. There was Sylux's ship, a purple x-shaped ship, and then there was Pierce's ship. Samus hadn't seen anything like it before. It was red and looked very streamlined. The wings looked as if they could fold over the ship's head, and Samus's scanners compared it to "a futuristic version of a jet, from the time of when Earth had thought that they were all alone in the galaxy." It had one cockpit, and several guns, one lined up to its center on the bottom and two on the sides of the center one. It virtually had no name.

As they docked their ships, Samus thought of something. "Hey," she said to both Sylux and Pierce, "will this ship have a name?"

Pierce shrugged, but Sylux came up with an answer. "Lazarus."

Samus considered this. "That's basically a synonym for Miracle, isn't it?"

"Yes." Sylux said. Samus wouldn't have considered this, and even if she did, she wouldn't have thought that somebody like Sylux would've thought of it. "Sounds like a good name," she agreed, and she saw that Pierce nodded in approval.

As Samus sat in her Zero Suit on Lazarus's control seat, deleting any file that was Federation-related, she felt a hand touch her shoulder. As she quickly reached for her stun gun, though, she saw that it was just Pierce.

"Damn it," she said a bit relieved, "You shouldn't scare me like that."

"Sorry," Pierce said, looking a bit nervous. Samus realized that if they were to be the crew of this ship, she would need to become friendlier to her peers.

"Hey, you know what, I'm glad you came," she said, faintly smiling, "I wanted to thank you."

Pierce gave her a confused look. "For what?"

"Well, for taking the shot for me when we were fighting Weavel," Samus continued in a grateful tone. "It wouldn't have killed me or anything, but it would've hurt. Thanks."

"Oh, right," Pierce said, "your welcome."

An awkward moment passed as nobody said anything. They just looked at each other for a moment. Samus finally continued "Why did you come?"

"Oh," Pierce said, looking more anxious, "I wanted to explain to you my backstory. However, that might be a bit difficult, now that I think about it," he said, looking Samus in the eye. "So, maybe you do know who my caretakers were."

"Who?" Samus asked while cocking her head in confusion.

"The Luminoth."

* * *

**A/N: DUN-DUN-DUN! By the way, if you look up the word Lazarus on Wikipedia, it does say that it is usually referring to the miracle of him resurrecting the guy Lazarus. I'm not trying to bring in religion to this fanfic; I just thought it was a cool idea. Also, Pierce's ship is basically the Swordfish 2 from Cowboy Bebop. Just got into the show, and I'm loving it so far already. By the way, Pierce's suit was NOT made by the Luminoth. He was just raised by them. Who made it? It will be answered in the next chapter. So review! Tell me what you thought of the longest chapter I've done yet!**


	5. The N'Kren

**A/N: This'll be my last update for the week. Going to Yosemite for the weekend, and when school starts up again, homework will probably be whipping my ass again, and so I might not update for a bit.**

* * *

Samus grit her teeth as she piloted the Lazarus through the asteroid belt.

It had been two days since Pierce had told her who his caretakers were. However, because of the distance between them, it was taking them longer than expected to get to Aether.

It also didn't help that the Lazarus was going through upgrades and repair. At times, it would shut down entirely. However, by the end of it, the ship would be better than it ever was before. The overall design of it was simple. It was a dull silver, was in the shape of an almost-flat circle, and its thrusters were modifiable.

Samus had decided to shut down her gunship. Due to the fact that they had to dump the remains of Weavel and the troopers out into space, they would be arrested for stealing a Federation ship, so they had to make sure that they couldn't be traced. Samus wasn't sure if the Adam computer would ever see the light of day again. Once again, she remembered her previous ship that was designed by the Chozo. It was destroyed before she had gone to B.S.L. She still had the blueprint designs for it, but the materials for it were very rare.

And so, the three of them were heading to Aether, the current home of the Luminoth. Both Pierce and Sylux were modifying the ship, and Samus was directing the ship to the planet.

Finally, the bounty hunter saw the pale planet. The scar of the Leviathan was still there, making the planet look like it had veins running across its surface. It was no longer clashing with an echo of itself, thanks to Samus. In fact, the planet looked like it was thriving, from what she could see.

Samus activated the intercom and said "Alright, guys. We're going in." and with that, she thrusted the ship through Aether's atmosphere.

The blonde also noticed that there were no longer storms as the Lazarus went down through the atmosphere. In fact, as the Lazarus soared over the land trying to find a good landing spot near the temple, Samus saw that the planet looked a lot different than it had before. When she was trying to eradicate the Ing, everything had a dull and dark feel to it, even in Light Aether. Now, it looked like the Luminoth had put it back together pretty well.

Finally, Samus landed the ship in the open area next to the temple. She noticed that now, the Luminoth were no longer hiding. In fact, there were now more of the mothlike species than before. There were some smaller ones that Samus assumed were children, which was a strange thought.

As she got up from her seat, Pierce entered the room. "Well, it's time for us to tell the truth," he said, looking very nervous.

"Yes, it is." Samus replied. She had almost flipped her lid when he had revealed that he knew the Luminoth. However, now she was calm and ready to get some answers.

"They're going to explain everything," Pierce continued, "Are you sure you're ready?"

"Not a lot of things can shock me anymore," Samus said with a grin, "Now, let's go." As she said it, she powered up her suit, and her armor appeared again. As the both of them walked from room to room on their way to the hangar, Sylux joined them. He, of course, hadn't removed his armor.

"I have only heard of these Luminoth," he rasped, punching in the code numbers in the terminal as they entered the hangar. He was opening the ramp. "What exactly do they look like?"

"You'll see," Samus replied as the landing ramp opened, "Just try to be nice, okay?"

"No promises," answered Sylux. Finally, the ship's ramp opened down and the light of the bright day hit them all. As the trio walked out and the Luminoth that had surrounded the ship noticed Samus, they all bowed.

"Oh, so that's what they look like," Sylux said, slightly startled. "Why are they bowing?"

"Probably because I ended the oppression of another species here," replied Samus as they walked out from the ramp. The Luminoth began to whisper amongst themselves in their language.

Samus didn't know how to differentiate the Luminoth by looking. However, something she had noticed before was that each one had their own unique aura to be felt. The first Luminoth she had ever encountered was U-Mos, who had stayed awake while the other members of his kind slumbered during the days of Dark Aether.

His aura was very inviting and kind. As Samus looked around and felt the Luminoths' auras, she finally found U-Mos, who was standing at the entrance to the Great Temple.

"There he is," Pierce said. "I know, we've met before," replied the blonde bounty hunter as the trio continued to walk towards the Great Temple.

U-Mos immediately bowed deeply as the three of them approached him. "Welcome, Samus," said the great Sentinel as he stood back up. "I believe you have found our Earth Child, correct?"

"Huh, so you weren't bluffing," said Samus towards Pierce. He stepped forward and said to U-Mos "Hello. I met Samus, just as you predicted I would. But now, she wants to know why I have my armor, exactly.

U-Mos sighed as he replied "Alright. I believe we should discuss this inside for privacy."

* * *

Samus was glad that she had not forgotten how the Great Temple looked like from the inside. There were no longer pods inside the walls, and the light of Aether still shined brightly. After the nostalgia wore off, she asked "The reason I came here is because I want answers, and Pierce just can't seem to give them. Correct?" she looked to Pierce and he nodded slightly.

U-Mos had been regarding Sylux with disregard when he was asked this. Finally, he turned to Samus and paused before saying "We and the Chozo weren't the only to be born of the stars, as legend tells."

Samus cocked her head slightly in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that long ago, four sentient beings were created," U-Mos continued as he looked to the designs on the walls, "The Chozo, the Luminoth, the Ylla, and the N'Kren. Sadly, much like the Chozo, the Ylla are no longer with us."

He turned to Samus and said "But the N'Kren are out there still. I am sure of it. Before my time, the N'Kren gave us information on their technology. With that knowledge, and our own technology, we were able to make an armor not unlike yours. This is, of course, only a prototype. We decided to wait until a being worthy of this technology came into our midst."

Now, he turned to Pierce. "And that is where you came in. Years before, there was once a human colony that decided to land here. We showed them no harm, and each group stayed in their own separate areas. However, the day came when the comet hit. Aether was split in two dimensions, and the human colony was destroyed by the Ing. We went there, looking amidst the carnage for survivors. There were only two survivors; a woman and her child. We took them in, provided them shelter. When the child became a young man, however, his mother was killed by the Ing as well."

U-Mos continued to look at Pierce with sad eyes, and Pierce forced himself to look at the ground, hands clenched into fists. Samus looked at him as well, and felt sympathy for him. He, like her, had everything taken away from him.

"And so, the young man became angry. He wanted to fight, and we taught him to be strong, and skilled. We realized that this was the being to receive the fused technology of ours and the N'Kren. He received the technology. However, before the final steps in his training were complete, the Ing stroke at us like they never had before. As my people began to enter their period of hibernation, the young man was sent off the planet, in a ship of our design. He was not ready, we knew. He still has to complete that final step."

U-Mos stepped towards Samus, saying "This young man is, of course, Pierce."

He looked up now, and said "Alright, now you know who I am. Will you trust me now?" he looked Samus in the eye.

"I already was trusting you," Samus replied, taking off her helmet. "What about you, Sylux?' she said, turning towards the purple alien.

"Anyone who doesn't try to kill me after a few days earns a bit of my trust," he answered.

* * *

**A/N: I saw the Star Trek: Into Darkness international trailer a few days back. I saw that ship that Kirk was piloting (you know, the scene where he flies it straight into the crevice), and that's basically the design for the Lazarus, except possibly bigger. Anyways, what did you guys think of the backstory I gave for Pierce? Let me know! Review!**


	6. When the Fire Dies Down

**A/N; Ideas! Huzzah! By the way, the N'Kren and the Ylla are an actual thing in the Metroid universe. I didn't just make them up.**

* * *

He looked up now, and said "Alright, now you know who I am. Will you trust me now?" he looked Samus in the eye.

"I already was trusting you," Samus replied, taking off her helmet. "What about you, Sylux?' she said, turning towards the purple alien.

"Anyone who doesn't try to kill me after a few days earns a bit of my trust," he answered. Samus flashed Pierce a quick thumbs up, which he grinned at.

"Wait," Samus suddenly said, remembering what had happened two days previously, "U-Mos. The Federation still ships supplies down to you and your people, right?"

The Luminoth looked at her with a slightly confused look before replying "Yes. However, the shipments are growing scarce. Perhaps it is all for the best, as our planet is in its final stages of being on the mend from the Ing. In fact, a resupply vessel was scheduled to land here today; however, they have not appeared yet. Perhaps they are late…" the sentinel trailed off as he became lost in thought.

"Well, have you heard any Federation officers talking about any strange activity in the galaxy?" the bounty hunter politely questioned further. She also put her helmet back on.

"Hmm," U-Mos thought aloud, before stating "Yes. I have. About a month before, two young soldiers were dropping off our supplies. As I oversaw the process, I heard the two young men say something about a man murdering children. Why do you ask such a question, Samus?"

Aran's heart sank in disappointment. They already KNEW that. They needed new leads; they needed to find out who Strande was in league with…

"It's nothing," she quickly replied. The sentient being of course, had a look of doubt across his face.

But wait… there was something else on his face… a tiny red dot…

Samus's eyes widened as she realized what it was. It was the laser of a sniper.

U-Mos noticed this. "Samus, what's-"

Without saying a word, the blonde quickly rushed forward and pushed the Sentinel away.

"Hey!" Pierce yelled as he ran over to help his former sentient guardian from off the ground, "what was that for?"

Oh, this is going to hurt, she thought for a millisecond.

A millisecond was all that it took for the sniper man to shoot. The beam stroke right on her viser's center, and the impact was so powerful that Samus was thrown onto the ground, several inches away from where she had been.

Her ears were ringing, for some reason. She was seeing double on everything, and when she tried to get up, she immediately felt dizzy. As she tried to check her energy reserves, she realized that she was more than sixty percent down.

Finally, her line of sight cleared, and she saw that Sylux was attempting to fire back at the sniper man, while Pierce was on his knees right next to her, trying to get her up on her feet.

"Samus! Are you alright?" he asked, concerned.

Finally, Samus was able to get up with the aid of Pierce, and she replied "Oh yeah, never felt better," in a groan.

The heroine also noticed that her visor had a crack running diagonally across it. Another thing she noticed was that Pierce still had an arm around her waist.

"Thank you," she said in a bit of a dangerous tone, and she indicated to his arm. He noticed, and he quickly drew it back to his side. "Oh, right," he said, embarrassed.

Samus tried to look up to where the laser had come from, but as soon as she lifted her head, she felt incredible dizziness again and almost fell right back down. Finally though, she was able to look up and see that Sylux would never be able to hit the assailant. He seemed to realize this too, as he abruptly stopped firing.

The temple hindered their lookout, but in the distance, Samus heard an engine screech. Suddenly, a blur of a ship flew straight over their heads, from the direction of the shot. It was a distinct red.

Aran put the pieces together: Long range lazer that took away most of her energy support? Check. Distinct color red? Check.

She was 95 percent sure that the attacker was fellow bounty hunter Trace. He, Samus, Sylux, and several other bounty hunters had gone looking for a Great Power; that Great Power almost ended up killing them all. Samus had managed to destroy the damn thing, though.

Samus's steps grew more confident as she walked towards U-Mos, who was now standing up. She now only felt slightly dizzy. Beneath her visor, her brow was knit together in thought. Why was he here? She wondered. Why would he try to assassinate U-Mos?

They all gathered up in a circle again, and Sylux rasped rather angrily "Please do NOT tell me that THAT was who I think it was?"

"We can't be sure, but for now, we're going to have to assume that yes, it's Trace." Answered Samus grimly.

"I think I've heard of him before," Pierce thought aloud, "was he one of the hunters who went after that message in the Ambilic system about two years ago?"

"Yes, and so were Samus and I," Sylux replied, looking towards his former foe a bit disconcertingly. "We were the worst enemies in that time."

"Yes, but that's all passed, right?" Samus said, slightly annoyed by the memory of the battles they had had. Sylux paused for a second before nodding his head slowly.

"Right. Enough of that, what I want to know is why he decided to shoot a Luminoth in the face," she continued, looking up at the sky once again.

"I'm not sure," responded U-Mos, who began to stroke his mandibles in thought, "I do know classified information, so there is that. But what would murdering me do? The information would therefore still never be leaked."

"Maybe it was the Space Pirates," Pierce brought up.

There was a gap of unabridged silence. Nobody brought up the Space Pirates nowadays, not even Samus Aran herself. After what had happened on Zebes, it seemed as if though they had gone into hiding. Urtagia, the Space Pirate homeworld, seemed completely abandoned.

"That's nonsense," Sylux finally replied. "Are you sure?" Pierce questioned, "from what I've read, they always seem to be able to come back."

Along with a couple of other enemies, Samus thought, remembering the many times she killed Ridley, the murderer of her parents.

Samus turned to Pierce. "Thinking that is just grasping for answers," she said, "There's been no activity for a while now. Ever since SR-388 was destroyed, there's been no sight of them. Even if they are out there, they've got no leader. At least, I hope…" Samus trailed off as she noticed the flare of light that was hitting in the corner of her visor. She looked up, dreading what she would see.

What she saw, was a spaceship twice the size of the Lazarus up in flames, plummeting towards Aether.

Pierce followed her line of sight, and widened his eyes. "Holy…"

"What is that?" Sylux asked. U-MOs's eyes became huge glassy orbs as they looked up. "The re-supply ship…"

"It's heading right for us," Samus said as she hardened her look in preparation for whatever it was they were about to face, "We need to get everyone outside the temple grounds. Pierce, suit up."

Before he did, Samus saw exactly how he was able to "suit up": it was a wrist-device on his right hand, so small that she hadn't noticed it until now. Almost immediately after he pressed it, he was encased in the dark blue armor.

"Ready," he said, holding up his weapon. Samus looked at Sylux in questioning, and he nodded a "ready". The four of them ran outside.

The crowd was still outside the temple. The trio of suit wearers were barely able to get to the front, out into the open field, the place where the Federation wreck had been at the edge of the cliff, but had since been removed. The whole place was bare, almost as if it made itself look nice for the fireball of flaming metal about to crash into it.

Samus had checked her scans correctly (which had been very hard to look through, seeing as how her visor was still damaged): it was 90 percent possible that the ship would crash into that area. U-Mos had managed to tell the crowd to go back into the actual temple itself, and he himself waited and watched the ship go down.

Finally, the fiery metal skidded onto the cliff before crashing into one of the rocky walls surrounding the cliff. The explosion was somewhat minor at best, cluing Samus in on the fact that the fuel had been ignited before the vessel began to fall.

They all trained their weapons onto the wreckage. The bounty huntress wasn't sure why they were doing this exactly; she just knew that there was an unpleasant feeling in her gut, the feeling that told you that something in that wreck was watching you.

Calm down, she told herself, though still not relaxing in the slightest, nobody can survive that, not unless they were wearing armor that was fireproof up to thousands of degrees…

But just then, something in the wreck shifted, and Samus immediately aimed her cannon at the location. It was a burning piece of metal: something alive was under it.

Finally, whatever it was got up, tossing away the hunk of metal as if it were nothing. It was hard to see through the flame and mirage, but the body was definitely still burning. The person looked like a women, and was probably tall and skinny; it was hard to tell, however, because the body was hunched over. It's head looked jerkedly around before finally focusing right on Samus, and then the blonde realized: they had been turned into beasts.

Someone on the ship must've had another trigger.

The thing began to twitch and snarled inhumanely before launching itself at the bounty hunter. Samus fired a single charge shot, which managed to burn off half of the creature's body; somehow, though, it was STILL moving. It only had half of its body, the bloody part having been cauterized, and it was now it was crawling on the ground with one hand, still making that horrible noise.

Before she could fire at it again, Pierce beat her to it: a bolt of energy passed cleanly and swiftly through the half of the animal's brain, quickly killing it.

Suddenly, another body popped up out of the wreckage. And then another. And then another…

In total, about two dozen people had been turned into the beasts. They were all up in flames, with some having several body parts missing. They were still heading towards them, though, very swiftly.

They all opened fire, with each suit-wearer being able to kill a handful of the creatures. Samus began to realize just how un-real they were. She shot a part of one's skull clean off, and it was still running to her. She shot it through the chest, and it went down.

Finally, the massacre ended. The bodies lay out across the field of land. She also noticed that Pierce was noticeably angry. She of course couldn't see through his visor, but he suddenly walked over to one of the beasts still struggling on the floor, and shot it several times repeatedly. He had his fist clenched as he was doing it, and when he was finished, he kicked the remains so hard that they flew over the edge of the cliff.

"Goddammit," Samus heard him mutter as he walked back.

Several Hours Later

The trio were once again on the Lazarus, this time flying away from Aether. Samus put it on autopilot, considering that they didn't know where to head to now.

As she walked around the ship in her Zero Suit and another brown trench-coat, she passed by the lounge and noticed Pierce sitting at one of the four tables there by himself. She hesitated to just keep walking before finally giving in and walking over to him.

"Hey," she greeted as she sat down across from him, "what's the matter?"

He had been looking down at the table before she had come in. Now, he looked up. "I'm supposed to help people," he replied slowly, "You know, that's the type of thought process I was brought up with."

Samus nodded in understanding. She too, was raised with the lesson off doing what was morally right. Of course, she wasn't able to apply that to everything she did.

"And now, the galaxy is once again, in jeopardy, like I've heard it was so many times before," he continued, his voice growing a bit hoarser, "and I want to help save it. No, I NEED to help save it. And…how can I do that, if I can't even save a ship full of people?"

"Well, you can't save everyone," Samus replied, knowing that it wasn't very good moral support, "I've had to let….SO many people die, just to save everyone else. Those are the types of sacrifices you have to learn to make."  
After a slight moment of silence, Pierce nodded in understanding, and stood up from the table. Samus stood up as well.

Pierce extended his hand out in thanks. "Thanks, Samus. That actually, really helped," he said, half-smiling.  
"No problem," she said, grinning faintly as she shook his hand. "That's what allies are for, right?"

* * *

**A/N: Thoughts are now exhausted. Please read and review.**


	7. His Return

**A/N: I'm Back! Again. Anyway, since I've had a week to think this up, I've actually already thought up of another chapter. Crazy, huh?**

* * *

G.F.S Halberd

The man tried to give encouraging and reassuring smiles to the people he walked by as he went down the brightly lit and well-managed corridor.

The man's name was Idris. He, along with everyone else he knew, thought that it was a pretty strange name. He remembered for a millisecond to the time when he spoke aloud his name to his commanding officer for the first time. His officer almost laughed himself to tears, saying that it sounded like a very "girly" name._ At least he didn't disapprove of me being a dark-skin,_ he thought, as he was of African American descent.

_Well, guess whose admiral now at the ripe age of thirty-one, huh?_ He thought to himself as he pressed his thumb into the scanner on the wall at the end of the corridor.

The admiral looked down at his outfit, with its odd placement of the now-silver pieces of armor (it had been green before), and he reached up to touch his cap slightly. He was remarkably fit, but his gift was being able to fire almost any kind of weaponry, and of course, being able to lead an entire fleet.

Finally, the white and spotless door slid open, revealing a dark room inside which Idris then walked into.

Inside were a collection of high-ranking Federation-officials. Idris hadn't bothered to remember all of their names, but he could at least recognize them okay.

He strode in, demanding "Has our man gotten through?" to one of the many personnel working at the monitors.

A week ago, the Federation began to get strange reports of raids across the galaxy. Of course, they had suspected that the space pirates (Or Urtagians), had returned, but what struck them as the most unusual was how quickly and spread out these attacks were. They were only across Outer Rim planets and such, but the Feds were still worried. They had learned long ago not to underestimate the pirates.

One of the workers answered with, "Y-yes sir, the call just came in six minutes ago."

Idris's grey eyes looked grimly at the huge blank screen on the wall. "Alright. Take it."

The sounds of typing were heard before the screen lit up and their "man"'s face appeared.

He definitely wasn't Idris's first choice. If anything, he felt that Samus would've been a good choice to infiltrate the apparently "abandoned" station on the planet Tairibiu. However, now that she's an enemy of the government, he decided to call for the next best thing. He was an alien, with a bluish-whitish skin, and a stretched out and distorted body. His hand was also his weapon, and where his face should be there was only a reflective surface.

He was the Vhozon bounty hunter known as Noxus. He was chosen out many other pursuers of the job simply because his intentions seemed to be in the right place, at least to Idris.

"Greetings, sir." Said the Vhozon, who appeared to be kneeling down behind something in the dark, and was holding his calling device a bit awkwardly.

"Hello," greeted back the admiral, his voice booming a bit (not that it mattered, since on Noxus's device it would sound very small), and his hand formally behind his back.

"Have you found something?" he continued, not flinching his hard gaze in the slightest at Noxus's "face".

"Yes. This is urgent," replied the ice-being quickly in his whispering voice, and Idris realized that the hunter looked very nervous, "It is true, the pirates have returned."

Idris didn't change his stoic-expression. This was to be expected, after all.

"Their numbers are, vast, to say the least," Noxus continued, and he kept on looking over whatever it was he was hiding behind. "They keep on talking about bringing somebody back, and it looks like they're all preparing for a huge battle.

This was unexpected, and it almost made the admiral to falter in his gaze. Could they be preparing for war? He wondered for a sec ond.

Before he could reply though, a bug-like sound was heard, and Noxus said what Idris presumed to be a swear word in his language before coming out of his hiding place (which as it turned out was a piece of machinery) and shooting at a… strange looking Space Pirate.

The Pirates were never a very revealing species. There have been several reported variations from the original Urtagians (for example, the Zebesians looked very different from any other space pirate), and so it was assumed that the species had different "races" much like humans.

But Idris had never seen one like this before. It seemed that the Pirates were doing cross-genetics, as the one he was looking at had a head that had oversized mandibles, a crab like skin, and harshly-lit green eyes. Its body was very mismatched, with one arm being that of an Urtagian, and the other arm a Zebesian claw, although this claw had numerous little spikes running all over it, and it was oozing a strange sort of liquid. Its legs were almost human like, if it weren't that they were bent at odd and painful looking angles.

Before it could fire at the bounty hunter, Noxus shot at it with his freezing-weapon. As expected, the animal froze, trapped in ice.

"I've been found," Noxus said, as they all heard the different cries of different Space Pirates circle around the Vhozon. "Admiral, you must seize this base imme-"

He was suddenly shot right on the side of his head, and he staggered before another, more powerful shot hit him in the side of his stomach, and he tried to shoot back before falling to the ground, the device landing right next to him, its screen cracked.

The admiral and his crew looked on with filling horror, as the Vhozon tried to get up. Idris noticed with alarm that, in the places he had been fired upon, there was a strange fungus beginning to grow, with weblike- veins crawling all over his body. It almost appeared alive.

Finally, Noxus was grabbed and pulled up by the arms, and the chattering increased, until suddenly, the Pirate that the bounty hunter had shot at picked up the recording device, and with a surprisingly loud screech, silenced all of the other members of its kind who were in the shadows.

It turned to the screen, and much to Idris's surprise, it spoke in a somewhat garbled English. "We've caught your annoying little friend," it said, it's mandibles moving very rapidly, and the admiral noticed that it actually had ANOTHER mouth beneath the mandibles.

"Don't bother coming here, because by the time you do, we'll be long gone." The chattering commenced again, before quieting down. "Soon, our leader will be resurrected once more, and this time, his mind, body, and spirit will be enhanced to their maximum. We are not afraid of you anymore," it said, bringing the device closer to his face, "We will bide our time, and soon, we will take over. You have been…somewhat warned." With that, the Pirate gripped the device with both arms and tore it apart, ending the message.

It was all silent in the room. As Idris looked around, he could tell that the people there were afraid. The Federation-officials finally burst out into arguments, yelling at each other, trying to decide what to do.

"QUIET!" Idris yelled, and even though it was not his place to do so, everyone did calm down and look to him, some with angry eyes, and some with afraid eyes.

After that, the admiral turned to one of his men. "Steven, I want you to place whatever satellite you can get on to Tairibiu. Try to see where they might be going." Steven gulped and nodded, and began to type away at his monitor.

"You," Idris continued, pointing to another worker, "get me anyone who may be of help to us. ANYONE."

Finally, he turned to one of the officials, a particularly furious looking one. "Sir, I'm sorry, but it seems like we'll have to call back a….certain vigilante of ours."

After getting his drift, the official sputtered angrily, his face turning a bit red, before stomping right up to the admiral (who kept his cool gaze) and almost yelled "No! We're not getting her back! Do you know how much money in property damage she ALONE has lost!?"

"Do you know how many lives she alone has saved?" the dark-skinned man replied in a low and steady tone. He hadn't met Samus in person (few people actually did), but he had observed her feats, and they were nothing short of life-saving.

Before the official could reply in another rage, the grey-eyed admiral turned away and spoke to another operator, "Track down the last time anyone saw Samus Aran. We'll start from there."

The official walked around Idris so that he could look him in the eye again and said in an angry-whisper "I can have your JOB for this, nigger. Do you know that?"

The admiral sighed internally at the racist remark before replying coolly "You can have the deaths of millions on your hands. Do YOU know that?"

There was a somewhat intense moment of them trying to stare each other down (somewhat as in Idris was the only one looking with intense eyes,) before the official finally got out of his line of sight.

"Alright, people," he boomed out, "Let's all get to work."

Tairibiu: Reacher Base

After he finished destroying the device, the mutated space pirate screeched at all of them to work as fast as they could. When he said they would soon bring back their master, he did mean SOON. It was already in the final stages.

One of his lessers approached him and chattered rapidly. If the mutated Urtagian had lips, he would've smiled at what his fellow pirate had told him.

_Soon, we will have our vengeance_, he thought, as they both walked away and into another vast room.

Inside the room was a sight to give nightmares. The room was just barely lit by all of the red monitors. All of them had some sort of coding or strange set of numbers plastered across their screens.

However, each of their power sources had a strange sort of holder that looked like it was supposed to hold a vial. The other Pirate handed the Urtagian a vial with a purple-ish liquid in it, and he inserted it into the holder. The liquid disappeared into the machine.

It was not Phazon. It was something even more dangerous.

Each of the machines had giant tubes running out of them, and these tubes all ran across the floor, up onto the wall, before connecting what was at first an unrecognizable husk. However, as more of the liquid continued to be pumped into it, it began to get color back, and the separated body parts began to reconnect themselves, bones and all.

Finally, the husk was back to its original body form. It was a space dragon, with dark grey, rough, and scaly skin. Its tail almost reached the machines, it was so long.

However, even though it was back to its original state, the pirates began to pump more of the strange liquid into the body, and suddenly, it began to grow larger. It grew to almost twice its original size, and the rough, scaly, dark grey skin was now smooth, with a hard-like surface, and a now dark-purple. The wings also grew, big enough to be wrapped around the creature's body.

Finally, the body proved too heavy for the wall supporters, and they broke, letting the body fall to the ground with a loud THUD! And the ground shook slightly.

Finally, the creature's eyes shot open, revealing eyes that were bright green, and had no irises.

As it rose from the ground, the pirates kneeled. The dragon's tail slowly slid away from it's original position and up into the air as the intelligent being began to flit it around.

"Ridley, our Master, you have returned," said the mutated-Urtagian as he now looked up.

The space dragon's eyes darted to the creature, and the pirate began to feel fear. "Yes," replied Ridley, in a cold and quiet voice, "It appears I have."

He quickly shot forward his sharp tail, aiming straight towards the pirate's head.

* * *

**A/N: Well? How was it? By the way, yes, the Idris character does basically look and sound like Idris Elba, the real life actor. I'll try not to make him a token black guy, okay? Anyway, please review!**


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